Put the spurs to it pard....I think I broke the mach meter, its acting screwy.Go ahead a break it...we'll fix it.Can you imagine sitting around a hanger at the flight test center in the 50's & 60'swith people like Jack Ridley, Bob Hoover, Chuck Yeager, Bob Cardenas?Man...the stories they could tell. Having a beer at Pancho's....

fusillade762:Yeah, but that punkass soft-drink-swilling Eurotrash didn't even use a plane.

Now if you'll excuse me I must be back to my hotel and practice my affectations.

Yes, but that punk-ass, soft-drink swilling Eurotrash did it in the age of modern material science and space travel. Chuck Yeager did it in a day and time when it was thought by many that breaking the sound barrier was impossible for a fixed wing aircraft. Many people expected the X-1 to just fall apart.

BronyMedic:fusillade762: Yeah, but that punkass soft-drink-swilling Eurotrash didn't even use a plane.

Now if you'll excuse me I must be back to my hotel and practice my affectations.

Yes, but that punk-ass, soft-drink swilling Eurotrash did it in the age of modern material science and space travel. Chuck Yeager did it in a day and time when it was thought by many that breaking the sound barrier was impossible for a fixed wing aircraft. Many people expected the X-1 to just fall apart.

And he did it with a couple of broken ribs. Improvised a handle so he could secure the canopy door.That would never, ever happen in today's risk-averse environment.

/Actually, today somebody, somewhere would file a suit preventing the flight from ever happening//Noise might scare somebody's sheep, or disturb a flock of birds or something.

They should have coordinated this a bit better so Chuck could do a supersonic flyby right past Felix as he floated down on his chute. Yeager could have yelled something about punk kids in the way or something...

Was farting around in the Mojave Desert just north of Edwards AFB back in '97. Listening to a local radio station, we found out it was the day Yeager was doing the 50th anniversary flight. Just kicked back, popped open some cold brews and watched the flight out of, and back to Edwards. Definitely a CSB for me.

I know a few people who have met him and unfortunately he's a grade A sexist douchebag. After one of these PR sound barrier anniversary flights a female lieutenant saluted and told him she'd show him to the officer's club. He barked at another officer to get him a "real lieutenant" to show him the way.

Kind of cool that he did that, amazed that they didn't use a T-38 for the commemoration today.1. Yeager has always been a fan of that plane (has stated on a couple of occasions publicly it was his favorite.2. They airforce has them on hand for training purposes.3. Cheaper per flight hour than a f-15.4. It is supersonic

The oldest person to break the sound barrier was on the Concorde at 102.

Interestingly as a former airman on Beale, and Grass Valley resident, he can be rude eccentric and crotchety.

RocketRay:I know a few people who have met him and unfortunately he's a grade A sexist douchebag. After one of these PR sound barrier anniversary flights a female lieutenant saluted and told him she'd show him to the officer's club. He barked at another officer to get him a "real lieutenant" to show him the way.

Oh, I've heard lots of stories about him being an arrogant, sexist, generally insufferable prick. He basically has a lot of behaviors and attitudes that were perfectly acceptable in the 1940's, and he's not going to change them to the modern day.

That aside he had incredible accomplishments as a pilot, and is worthy of respect for that. Just don't think of him as a perfect, idealized hero or some kind of role model for a personal life.

I think it's awesome that they had to postpone the jump so that it happened on this date, it couldn't have worked out better. These guys are both such big studs that they make all other studs look like pu**ies.

I would bet that Yeager wouldn't deny Felix his moment in the sun either. I'm sure he admires the man for the jump.

BTW: I REALLY hate the Daily Fail format. Sure, they have a lot of cool pics, but a giant picture, then scroll down to a sentence or two, then scroll down to a caption or two that repeats something in the story, and it takes you 10 minutes to read a webpage that has about 3 paragraphs worth of info. It's even worse when one of the stories is fashion related, you see six pics of some celebrity with stupid puns and nothing actually interesting to say.

There were people going around until today saying it wouldn't be possible to survive falling at supersonic speed. To quote Joe Kittinger from the press conference "I'd like to give a special one fingered salute to those people who said he would come apart going through the speed of sound".

He was promoted to Brigadier General in 1969, and retired at that rank in 1975.

He was promoted to Major General (retired) in 2005. (The same act of Congress also promoted Billy Mitchell posthumously to Major General, essentially exonerating him from his 1925 Court Martial for publicly stating that bombers could easily destroy battleships and air power was the way of the future instead of massive battleship fleets)

RocketRay:I know a few people who have met him and unfortunately he's a grade A sexist douchebag. After one of these PR sound barrier anniversary flights a female lieutenant saluted and told him she'd show him to the officer's club. He barked at another officer to get him a "real lieutenant" to show him the way.

He's not really sexist. He is a mega a$$hole to everyone. His Dbaggery is legendary along the airshow circuit. He made horrible comments when Scott Crossfield died. In his biography he went out of his way to crap on Crossfield and Neil Armstrong. Also embellishing events of when he crossed paths with them. He also ran a plane off the side of a runway trying to land a few years ago.

Maxor:Kind of cool that he did that, amazed that they didn't use a T-38 for the commemoration today.1. Yeager has always been a fan of that plane (has stated on a couple of occasions publicly it was his favorite.2. They airforce has them on hand for training purposes.3. Cheaper per flight hour than a f-15.4. It is supersonic

The oldest person to break the sound barrier was on the Concorde at 102.

Interestingly as a former airman on Beale, and Grass Valley resident, he can be rude eccentric and crotchety.

Yeager had a cameo in The Right Stuff and I believe his charachter was billed as "crotchety old man" He was the old man in Pancho's who offered the suits some moonshine

Chuck Yeager is known throughout the pilot community as a complete asshole. I'm impressed by his accomplishments but I know there are many men out there who could've and would've done the same thing if their name had been picked out of the hat. As a professional aviator, I'll never look up to this man.

In the late 80's, they flew the Enola Gay into Hill Air Force Base in Utah as part of their air show. They even had a couple of the crewmen (both were on board when they bombed Hiroshima) sitting around who would tell you anything you ever wanted to know about her, the missions, etc. Very cool to meet them and get to see the plane up close.